Wandering Thoughts archives

2009-12-30:	Real world support periods are shorter than they look
2009-12-28:	The annoying timing of future SSL certificate renewals
2009-12-27:	Some OpenSSL and SSL certificate basics
2009-12-22:	How not to set up your DNS (part 20) Do you have a network layout diagram?
2009-12-15:	The high costs of true security paranoia in the face of compromises
2009-12-13:	Sysadmin versus developer uses of version control systems Mercurial versus git for sysadmins, or why we picked Mercurial
2009-12-12:	You should always be able to get a program's version and basic usage
2009-12-08:	Why I am not enthused about etckeeper and similar systems
2009-12-02:	The mixed directory/unrelated files VCS problem
2009-11-27:	Modern version control systems change your directory layouts
2009-11-23:	Converting a directory from RCS to Mercurial
2009-11-22:	RCS versus modern version control systems
2009-11-14:	How to defer things in Exim
2009-11-13:	(Ab)using Exim routers for their full power
2009-11-12:	What makes Exim work as a mailer construction kit
2009-10-21:	Why you should be able to get a list of your local email addresses
2009-10-20:	Simple mailing lists: an illustration of Exim's flexibility
2009-10-19:	The case against backup MXes
2009-10-18:	Backup MXes versus redundant MXes
2009-10-16:	A tale of network horror, or at least excitement
2009-10-10:	You should delete obsolete data files
2009-09-30:	A little habit: `cat >/dev/null`
2009-09-26:	How our 'plug in and go' laptop network DHCP portal works
2009-09-09:	Postfix versus Exim
2009-09-08:	Some ways to avoid needing a public ticketing system
2009-09-07:	A use for ticketing systems as your primary support method
2009-08-31:	How to deprecate bits of your program
2009-08-17:	More accidental BitTorrent on our network
2009-08-14:	Sorting out what 'passive ftp' is
2009-08-09:	Building true ssh opportunistic connection sharing
2009-08-08:	How I use ssh's connection sharing feature
2009-08-07:	The basics of ssh's connection sharing feature
2009-07-31:	How fast various ssh ciphers are
2009-07-27:	Why you should do code reviews for sysadmin scripts
2009-07-16:	Another reason to safely update files that are looked at over NFS
2009-07-11:	What can go wrong in making NFS mounts
2009-07-06:	How you could do a shared root directory with NFS
2009-06-30:	More on why users keep mailing specific people
2009-06-29:	A theory on why users keep mailing specific people
2009-06-26:	How not to set up your DNS (part 19)
2009-06-25:	Patching systems versus patching appliances
2009-06-22:	Why GNU tools are sometimes not my favorite programs
2009-06-13:	One of the reasons good alerting is tough
2009-06-11:	There are two different purposes of monitoring systems
2009-06-08:	Monitoring systems should be always be usefully informative
2009-06-06:	User perceptions (and expectations) of backups
2009-06-05:	How we're planning our backup storage capacity needs
2009-05-27:	Hosted servers, cloud computing, and backups
2009-05-25:	Backups versus redundancy
2009-05-24:	An interesting bit of ssh and sshd behavior
2009-05-17:	The crucial difference between online and offline backups
2009-05-10:	What affects how fast you can restore backups
2009-05-09:	Our disk-based backup system
2009-04-27:	The problems of over-documenting things
2009-04-26:	Lighttpd, CGIs, and standard error
2009-04-21:	Why your ticketing system should not be accessible to users
2009-04-18:	What users see as benefits from sysadmins
2009-04-13:	Your ticketing system should be optional
2009-04-09:	Why ssh needs to verify host keys
2009-04-07:	Handling ssh to generic hostnames
2009-04-02:	System status announcements and where your users are
2009-03-31:	A sysadmin use for Twitter
2009-03-29:	Why I wrote my own bulk IO performance measurement tool
2009-03-24:	Frustration for a sysadmin (well, for me)
2009-03-12:	The problem with `/var` today
2009-03-11:	Checklists versus procedures
2009-03-10:	Why checklists work
2009-03-03:	Rollbacks versus downgrades
2009-02-25:	Don't log usernames for bad logins
2009-02-11:	True point in time restores may be hard
2009-02-09:	Backups and archives
2009-02-07:	An illustration of one reason that documentation is hard
2009-01-18:	The basic implementation of relatively high-availability NFS
2009-01-16:	A lament about modern NFS development
2009-01-12:	What I want out of NFS security, at least at the moment

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